The Witzard

"Surreal, absurd, abstract, shot through with a E.E. Cummings sense of the vibrant and a Le Guin style comic abstruseness." - The Wire "If it was already written, well, then, shall I not have scorn / A Jazz musician died and Pan Am was born," Leron Thomas / Pan Amsterdam "One of the best horn players around today. [He] realizes the imperative to be more than just a horn player," Iggy Pop. "Elevator Music Vol. 1 marks the first in a three-part series of EP's, which will be released this year. In this installment, we have collabs with Open Mike Eagle & Iggy Pop! Not one for keeping things predictable or even sensical, Pan Amsterdam plans to drop three very different projects this year, all under the banner of "Elevator Music." There will be more surprises to follow, as this plays out..." - Def Pressé Press Release (@DefPresse) Mobile / 15 Seconds by Pan Amsterdam x Iggy Pop I. How did you first meet The Godfather of Pu...

"someone did a mash up album of @qotsa vocals over various music i've made and it's kind of awesome. thanks for this weird gift @boototom," el-p (@therealelp) wrote within an enthusiastic April 3, 2018 Tweet. To be honest, I hadn't heard about ToToM's El-Q album either, until El-P Tweeted about it, but once I delved in and started listening, I thoroughly enjoyed it! ToToM is the production alias of Paris-based "bastard pirate producer" Thomas Boivin; after a bit of investigative journalism, I was able to get in direct contact with the mysterious producer himself. ToToM has been constructing genre-eschewing mash-ups AKA bootlegs AKA "Bastard Pop" since about 2005-06 and readily lists DJ Zebra, Nine Inch Nails, La Phaze, and LCD Soundsystem amongst his greatest sources of influence. He's released collaborative mash-up albums with SpareElbowSkin, Fissunix & Colatron (B.I.M.A.) MichMash, Shoefiti, MsMiep, and La Phaze, as well as on...

" Oneohtrix Point Never (0PN) teams up with longtime inspiration and Spiritual Rap guru Ishmael Butler , The Palaceer of Shabazz Palaces/Digable Planets . Listen to new track "The Rapture," below," Warp Records wrote within a 26/09/2017-published press release. " 0PN and Butler met and produced "The Rapture" on first meeting this Summer , creating the experiment of verses and spine-tingling dances of percussion. The track premieres as a unique addition to the [adult swim] singles club," it continued. "The Rapture" is actually credited to "319" —a newly-formed rapper-producer duo consisting of Ishamel "Butterfly" Butler AKA Palaceer Lazaro and Electronic producer Oneohtrix Point Never AKA Daniel Lopatin of Ford & Lopatin . It's been quite a busy year for both Butler and Lopatin with Shabazz Palaces releasing not one, but two full-length albums on the same July day, Quazarz: Born On a Gangster St...

"We love working with great directors, giving them the creative freedom to interpret our tracks as they wish. It leads to great collaborations, like this new video for "In Cold Blood" from Casper Balslev . As you are about to find out, a day in the life of a wood mouse can be unexpectedly dangerous... We hope you enjoy it," signed simply Gus, Joe & Thom . I'm of course, talking about Gus Unger-Hamilton , Joe Newman , and Thom Sonny Green of English Indie Rock buzz band alt-J , who were once a bit prematurely dubbed "the next Radiohead ," as the Indie Rock music-covering machine seems to do every 10 years or so. Since forming while attending Leeds University with since-departed fourth member Gwil Sainsbury , alt-J have released three EP's, two critically-acclaimed studio albums, and one live album recorded at Red Rocks ; on the heels of their wildly successful sophomore album, This Is All Yours (2014) alt-J are currently gearing up t...

Hello world 101 - Vinyl Recording (96Khz-24Bit) by Elektrostal "We started out asking ourselves the question, 'if Daft Punk didn’t originate from France , but rather a dank dystopian nightmare of a Moscow suburb, what would that sound like?'" reads the brief, slightly tongue-in-cheek, description included on Amsterdam -based Retro-Future Elecrtonic a band Elektrostal 's Soundcloud page. Elektrostal consists of self-described "song-writer, agitator & synth whizz" Justin Billinger and "floppy label writer, Atari [engineer], vocals & synth [programmer]" Ferry Ridderhof . Billinger & Ridderhof unleashed their appropriately-titled 7-track debut EP, Hello world 101 on vinyl record and high-quality MP3, FLAC, etc. download as recently as November 11th, 2016; a mere six days later, Elektrostal uploaded a digitized vinyl copy of Hello world 101 , which consists of "a 96 Khz 24-bit recording of the vinyl album with a classic Te...

"It’s been 20 years since Chavez released their second and final studio album Ride The Fader (1996), but in late 2015, Matt Sweeney, Clay Tarver, Scott Marshall & The James Lo resumed operations; once again ensconcing themselves with John Agnello at NJ ’s Water Music , ignoring the label’s demands for a full-length album and instead delivering three knockout punches that prove these Godfathers of Art Metal (for f*ck’s sake, please don’t actually call them that—or tell them we said it) are as idiosyncratic, inventive, and anthemic as THE LAST TIME THEY TOLD US THEY WEREN’T GOING TO TOUR..." Matador Records wrote within a rather tongue-in-cheek Chavez Cockfighters EP press release. Chavez have been neither active nor inactive over the course of the past 20 years, reuniting sporadically—first, on a Stereogum -sponsored concert at B rooklyn venue Warsaw back in 2006 and a TV appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon back in 2011. Matt Sweeney has gone on to for...

"The collaboration started with a text message from [Iggy] Pop to [Josh] Homme , who recalled, "it basically said, 'hey, it would be great if we got together and maybe write something sometime – Iggy ,'" The New York Times wrote within a recently published piece announcing Pop & Homme 's feverishly-awaited collaborative album, Post Pop Depression . "We corresponded by text and prose poem for a while... I write poetry. It's a wonderful way to get to know somebody," Homme continued whilst on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert alongside band mate Iggy Pop on the eve of the album's spontaneous Thursday night announcement . Iggy Pop and Queens of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme performed on Colbert with a suit-clad six-piece band, which included Dead Weather guitar/keyboard player Dean Fertita , Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders , Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar, and former Superwolf bassist Matt Sweeney . It almost feels as thou...

"Die Young" is a mildly apocalyptic, sugar-coated "dance til we die" jam along with some half-assed satanic rituals/pseudo-orgy-tinged visuals... complete with that inherent layer of Hipster sleaze and over-produced shitty-ness. Ke$ha 's your typical she'd-be-hot-if-she-showered-more-often kinda dirty [blonde] girl; But I must say, she's really cleaned up a lot since first bursting onto the music scene with Animal/Cannibal EP (2010). Nate Ruess , who scored 2+ MAJOR hits this year with fun. , helped Ke$ha co-write "Die Young" and Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco , and Cirkut all had a hand in the production end of the Electro-Acoustic hybrid track. Ke$ha 's second album, Warrior , is slated for a December 4th release and will also include a handful of note-worthy appearances from Iggy Pop , Wayne Coyne, Ben Folds , will.i.am , and Patrick Carney (The Black Keys). Like I was starting to say up there, before some debonair young fellow r...

Jack Davey is pretty widely known as the fashion-forward, genre-blending frontwoman of "Hip-Hop" group J*Davey , but now she's decided to branch out on her own... forging a solo career as a slightly more Rock "N" Roll -tinged sultry Funk-Soul songstress. Fresh off the heels of their long-awaited and [finally] self-released proper album, New Designer Drug and following the birth of her new-born son, Davey is readying her solo debut in 2 distinct parts; ILLAV8R is planning to liberate L0-F! Side A on Oct. 2nd, which Jack Davey simply describes as "a girl, her shitty guitar, and introspective songwriting." It's follow-up, Side B will see a Nov. 6th release, feature more instrumentation/advanced guitar techniques, and was produced by Joey Strat of The Knux . L0-F! Parts 1-2 will then be re-released together in a DELUXE edition with 3 bonus tracks on Dec. 11th! "Howl at The Moon" mysteriously appeared in my Inbox late yesterday ...

Iggy Pop & Ginger Baker are a couple of nearly unfathomable Rock "N" Roll legends; The kinda guys that are libel to have hooked up with your mother, grandmom, and sister back in their 1960-70's heyday! Iggy Pop is quite arguably considered "The Godfather of Punk" ... having slept with David Bowie , essentially invented the stagedive, cut himself with shards of glass during a live show, and then notoriously labelled as "crazy" by none other than Alice Cooper ! Pop then then came into prominence with The Stooges , while Ginger Baker was the righteous drummer for Cream , Blind Faith , and more taste-makers. Film-maker/writer Jay Bulger attempted to capture the over-indulgent life and times of the now 73-year-old Jazz drumming madman in his documentary, "Beware of Mr. Baker" ... Bulger ultimately got to score interviews with Ginger Baker 's friends-collaborators, chronicle his assorted hobbies, and when he finally got a chance to...

In a crazy cyber-world where "Underground Hip-Hop" is widely accepted across so many Indie music blogs, suburban areas, and rich Hipster kids... I guess, this was really only inevitable with time; Last night @ a FADER/Vitamin Water -funded party in Portland , 2 Indie blog darlings, Kendrick Lamar & Bethany Cosentino (Best Coast) , took the stare together for the first time. They performed a slightly re-tweaked version of "No Make-Up (Her Vice)" with Cosentino subbed in for Colin Munroe on the hook. The understandably surprised Portland biker crowd went NUTS! - Singing along and cheering wildly @ the track's close. "uncapped" is a concert series that heads across college campuses, putting on tandem shows that pair up unlikely acts anywhere from Rick Ross to Passion Pit . "No Make-Up (Her Vice)" originally appeared on Kendrick Lamar 's album-length drug-themed concept mixtape, #Section.80 . He's currently hard @ work on...